OpenMoko apps website ?

On Tue, 2008-08-19 at 12:09 +0100, Valerio Valerio wrote:
> Hi,
>> besides projects.openmoko, I think OpenMoko should have a new website
> more oriented to the users, it all the OpenMoko applications organized
> by categories, with screenshots, small descriptions and also the
> direct link to the packages. Something like this:
>http://maemo.org/downloads/OS2008/>> Sometimes I go to the screenshots area of linuxtogo and I see very
> cool app running on the FR there, but a lot of times I don't know what
> app is, this new site will resolve this lack for sure.
>> When OpenMoko goes to prime time, and non technical people get in
> touch it the phone this application site will give a lot of help to
> those people that don't know all the free apps that can install in the
> phone.
>> what do you think ?
I like the idea, but I think we can do it a few steps better.
1) Rather than downloading the ipkg/opkg file through the browser (Which
isn't a bad idea, see 2) using some kind of URL such as
opkg://install?pkg=pkgname or opkg://install?repo=extras&pkg=pkgname.
That way a site could have screenshots, news, changelogs, user reviews,
etc. but not have to keep up with the latest rev of some of the more
rapidly-developing software.
2) For packages that aren't in repos (shocking I know), opkg could have
a local-install option similar to yum and dpkg that will satisfy unmet
dependencies from available repositories making the downloads smaller
(If it doesn't already). The ipkg/opkg file gets downloaded then passed
to opkg which takes it from there.
3) Not strictly related to this problem, but one of the things that has
really endeared me to yum is the ability to install/update repos with a
single RPM file. No mucking around editing a .cfg file to add/remove
repos, just drop a formatted .repo file in the appropriate directory and
all the yum-enabled package managers start using it. (Again, assuming
this isn't something opkg does already)
So in conclusion, I like the idea. Something like
"software.openmoko.org" or "mokosoftware.org" that has all sorts of
goodies like categories, notifications, RSS feeds, a "mobile" front-end
(maybe just a CSS target) suitable for browsing right from a Moko
device, etc. Too bad the source to Freshmeat isn't available.
However, I would like to see package files contain better meta-data
(e.g. a decent description, a Homepage URL, and a License tag so you can
determine if it's something you want to install BEFORE you commit it to
your device).
-KW